Various approaches for examining the property of specimens and/or for discrimination among a plurality of types of specimens have been developed.
For example, Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2003-169788 (Patent Document 1) and Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 10-99288 (Patent Document 2) disclose an apparatus for measuring the moisture content of skin. The apparatuses disclosed in these documents measure the amount of moisture in skin taking advantage of the fact that the electrostatic capacitance of skin differs depending upon the moisture content of skin.
Further, an apparatus for image-processing a skin picture to quantify skin disorder is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 63-161935 (Patent Document 3).
Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2002-345760 (Patent Document 4) discloses a method and apparatus for estimating the relative depth of the site where melanin is present from the surface of the skin based on a combination of spectroscopic images in three wavelengths.    Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2003-169788    Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 10-99288    Patent Document 3: Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 63-161935    Patent Document 4: Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2002-345760